Using "Quote" instead of "Reply" will quote the entire message to which you are replying. You can edit the quoted material, but
be very careful not to delete any of the quote tags or any part of them, including brackets!
There needs to be opening and closing brackets, [ and ], surrounding both opening and closing quote tags, like this:

Code:

[quote].....[/quote]

(The opening tag may contain other text referring to the author of the message you are quoting.)

If you quote a message which already contains quoted material, the quote tags will stack up. You can edit these too, but be sure to take the same precautions. There needs to be a closing quote tag for each opening quote tag.

If in doubt, don't use the quote feature at all. Everything you would quote already appears, in chronological order, in the thread in which you are replying.

For best results, always preview your message before posting/submitting it. You can go back and edit your post on the forum if you do not use the quote feature correctly the first time, but please remember that your original post has already gone out over the mailing list in its incorrect form. Again, it's recommended that you use the preview feature before actually posting your message. That way, you can correct any errors before your message goes out to hundreds of mailing list users.

To quote individual parts of a message so you can reply item by item, just use the "Quote" button in the message composer.

For example, here's a message to which I want to reply item-by-item:

Here's my message. Here's point one. Here's point two and point three.

I'll highlight the first point and click on the "Quote" button to produce this in the message composer:

Code:

[quote]Here's point one.[/quote]

which will produce this:

Quote:

Here's point no. one.

Now comments can be added after the quoted material, and the same can be done for subsequent points.

I would suggest playing with this in the test forum and previewing the post until you get the hang of it. This is not at all difficult, but may take a little practice the first time. It's simply a combination of highlighting text and the use of the Quote button.

Once you get the hang of this, you can consider including the username of the person you are quoting. This takes the form of:

Code:

[quote="username"]quoted text[/quote]

with the username enclosed in quotes, which will produce this:

username wrote:

quoted text

This is optional. Be sure you don't delete any of the quotation marks.

It is highly recommended that you always preview your post before submitting it to make sure you have the tags right. Remember that messages posted to the Hummer forums go out to mailing lists immediately and as-is. If you mess up the tags, you can go back and edit the message on the forum, but the messed-up version has already gone out over the mailing list.

Also, make sure you add your reply after the last quote tag. If you add comments within the quoted material, it will appear as a quote. Be sure it's outside the quoted text.

It's always a good idea to preview your post before submitting it.

I'd like to tack on a pet peeve of mine... A certain amount of quoting is very important to maintain the thread of the conversation. This is even more important for those who use the mail list version since they don't have the benefit of threads, but even threads will split into a number of 'sub-threads' and one reply without quotes is difficult to associate with the message that the poster was referring to sometimes.

So please do quote in your replies, just keep the quotes formatted correctly and trim the quote to the relevant information. Fer example:

The original message might have said:

"I am using an impact wrench, and it doesn't seem to have enough power to do the job, what am I doing wrong? Also, when I use my CTIS what is the proper procedure for airing up? How do I put air in my tires?"

Quote:

How do I put air in my tires

answer: turn on the compressor.

===

Now had I just posted 'turn on the compressor' it may not have been clear what I was referring to! (Yep, I've done that, forgot to power on the compressor and wondered why my impact wrench was getting so weak!)_________________My name is Peter, and I'm never going to grow up.

Always quote part of the post you are replying to! Your signature should have your Hummer's model, year, engine and significant modifications!

There is also a digest version of the mailing list. Messages are stored until a certain file size is reached, then they're sent out as a single e-mail message. It's like pasting 20 or so e-mails together in chronological order, one after another after another. OVER-quoting makes the digests very repetitive. The same material can appear over and over to the point where it can be difficult to find any new comments that were made among all the quotes.

So please don't quote more than is necessary. There is no need, in most cases, to quote many levels deep. Quote only enough to put your reply in context and no more, please.

I realize all this requires one to actually put some THOUGHT into posting a message. That can be asking an awful lot. Many people just want to click-type-click-done and nothing more. If you do think about what you're posting, you will come across much more clearly and you will get better results.

Be sure the checkbox next to "Disable BBCode in this post", right below the text box where you type your message, is NOT CHECKED. If that box is checked, the quote feature will not work and your reply will show the quote tags as text.

If that checkbox comes up checked by default (it's always checked unless you un-check it), then you have it set that way in your profile. Go to your profile and, under "Preferences", look for "Always allow BBCode:" and check the "Yes" button.

ALWAYS PREVIEW YOUR POST WHEN USING THE QUOTE FEATURE. Then, if you see the quote tags displayed as text, you'll know that box must be checked and you can fix it before it goes out over the mailing list that way.

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